Quelques cinemas

I was in Paris last week and spent some of my evenings at the movies.

Top: Le Desperado. I saw Né pour Tuer (Born to Kill, a nice film noir set mostly in SF).
Bottom: La Filmotheque. I saw Blow Up and Heat (which the line is for).

Tour Eiffel, 14 Juillet

Fireworks viewed from the École Militaire on July 14.

Défilé militaire du 14 juillet

3 C160NGs flying over the Arc de Triumphe.

A KC-135FR followed by a Rafale and three Mirage 2000s.

A bunch of Alpha Jets.

An ERC 90.

A Véhicule de l'Avant Blindé.

A Véhicule Blindé Léger.

The Leclerc tanks had famous French battles stenciled on their turrets.

A special convoy of Renault TRM 700-100 tank transporters carrying Leclerc tanks and other armored vehicles.

À l'aube

I'm not usually up this early.

At the movies

Melody convinced me when we first moved here to buy an UGC Illimité card, which allows you to watch an unlimited number of movies at most movie theaters in Paris for a yearly fee of about 240 euros. At 8 euros a movie, we would need to watch 30 movies to make the card worthwhile, and I think we accomplished that in our first couple of months here. Most awesomely, there was a complete Rohmer series at La Filmotheque in August, so we saw all the subtitled versions they showed:

-Le Genou de Claire
-Pauline à la plage
-L'Amour l'après-midi
-La Femme de l'aviateur
-Les Nuits de la pleine lune
-Le Rayon vert
-L'Ami de mon amie
-Conte de printemps
-Conte d'été

We just watched Barry Lyndon at La Filmo as part of their Kubrick series. I had seen BL on video, but watching a projection of it made it clear that it is the most beautiful looking movie I've ever seen.



We also recently saw Sailor et Lula (Wild at Heart) at Le Champo, down the street from La Filmotheque.



It seems there is always some Lynch playing somewhere in town, always some Hitchcock, always some film noir, and always some westerns. So, for example, we saw To Catch a Thief, Lifeboat, and Strangers on a Train at La Filmo, Melody saw Kiss Me Deadly there too, and I was giddy watching The Wild Bunch at Action Christine and Pat Garret and Billy the Kid at La Filmo.

Some others I can remember:

-Rio Bravo (La Filmo)
-Les Felins (La Filmo)
-An Affair to Remember (La Filmo)
-Now Voyager (Action Christine)
-The American Friend (La Filmo)
-Badlands (La Filmo)
-Thin Red Line (La Filmo)
-The New World (La Filmo)
-Bad Lieutenant (La Filmo) (this was part of a Harvey Keitel series!)
-Klute (La Filmo)
-Manhunt (La Filmo)
-Ninotchka (La Filmo)
-Hombre (La Filmo)
-Minuit à Paris (UGC Danton, which appears in the opening montage)
-You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (Mk2 Quai de la Seine)
-Source Code (don't remember where)
-Paths of Glory (Le Champo)
-Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (La Filmo)
-Black Swan (Mk2 Quai de la Loire)
-King's Speech (Mk2 Quai de la Seine)
-The Fighter (somewhere on the Champs-Élysées)
-The Social Network (Mk2 Quai de la Seine)
-Reservoir Dogs (La Filmo) (also part of the Keitel series)
-Crimes and Misdemeanors (La Filmo)
-Femme Fatale (La Filmo)
-Charade (La Filmo)
-Breakfast at Tiffany's (La Filmo)
-An American in Paris (La Filmo)

Invalides

While visiting the Musée de l'Armée, my dad and I also watched a large French military ceremony in the central courtyard of Invalides. The French navy dress uniforms (with the red pom pom on top of the hat) are particularly awesome. The enlisted men and women standing at attention with FAMAS rifles with fixed bayonets would have to cover the pointy tip of the bayonet with their hand when they moved around, presumably to prevent poking someone's eye out.

Pont des Artes

Around 10pm on the Pont des Artes.

The Tower

There's a sign in the Eiffel Tower elevator that says, in English, "Beware of the pickpockets".

Les Colonnes de Buren

Yesterday we stumbled across Les Colonnes de Buren, Daniel Buren's striped columns in the Palais Royal.

Quai de Jemmapes

Twilight on the Canal Saint Martin. This time of day, when the sky is still light, but lights are on, always reminds Melody of Magritte's The House of Mysteries.

At Home I Feel Like a Tourist

Because I've been acting like one.

The Louvre

The Louvre, packed with paintings and people looking at and painting studies of and taking pictures of paintings.

From top to bottom: La Jaconde, Weenix (whose name, as pointed out by Wyeth, sounds like an Asterix character), the hall of Italian paintings, and a study of Rembrandt's Flayed Ox.

Ancient iPhone

The Louvre.

Oscar Wilde's Tomb

The defaced tomb of Oscar Wilde in Père Lachaise.

Lord Henry describes Dorian Gray as having "finely curved scarlet lips", but this is ridiculous.

Fines de Claires No. 3

Sunday Lunch: Fines de Claires No 3 from the Richard Lenoir market.

Déjeuner sur l'herbe

Déjeuner dans le Jardin du Luxembourg, avec Melody (et tout le monde).

Hegel Tutoring

Ad for a tutoring service on the Metro.

Day out

We had a big day out today. We went to the de Stijl show at the Pompidou, saw Karl Lagerfeld get into a Rolls Royce outside the Galignani bookstore, walked by a bunch of fashion week tents, spotted these guys, had dinner at Les Cocottes, and walked home, past the Grand Palais and the city all lit up.

Cinémania

La Filmothèque du Quartier Latin is our favorite movie theater. Since we've been here, they've played complete series of Eric Rohmer and Terence Malick, a series of movies featuring Harvey Keitel (including The Border), movies featuring members of the Fonda family, a series of movies set in Paris, and now they're in the middle of showing a ton of Peckinpahs. Last night we saw Pat Garett and Billy the Kid, which is the best Peckinpah after La Horde Sauvage.

The Filmotheque is great, but if you want to see anything you need to get there early. These pictures show the queue-jumping mob outside the theater on a Monday night at 6pm. The crowd is fighting to get a place to see either Manhunt or Straw Dogs.

Tour Eiffel

2011


2002

The world is getting less blurry.